CALIFORNIA - The California Pintos are still searching for that first win of the season.
They hope that search will end tonight when the Pintos go back on the road to play the Versailles Tigers in Tri-County Conference action. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
California (0-4, 0-2 Tri-County) suffered its first shutout of the season in last Friday's 43-0 loss at Boonville in the Pintos' first road contest.
Meanwhile, Versailles (2-2, 1-1 Tri-County) had been averaging 31.7 points per game, until last Friday's 37-0 loss at Blair Oaks, the No. 2 team in Class 2 in this week's Missouri Media Rankings.
Making matters even more difficult to obtain that first win, California may be playing without starting quarterback Alex Currens tonight. Currens injured his wrist in last week's game against Boonville.
California coach Mikel Gragg said the team is waiting to hear back from Currens' doctor regarding his status for tonight's game.
Through four games, Currens has passed for 249 yards and rushed for another 248 yards to lead California. He has accounted for half the team's touchdowns.
On offense, Gragg said the Pintos are going to continue to try to gain control of the line of scrimmage."We are going to be looking to start our run game early and move the football by running it as we always have. Nothing is really changing for us," he said.
Gragg said tackling in space was an issue for the team last week, and that has been something the team has worked on during practice.
"We have done a good job of working on tackling this week," he said. "It has been one of our defensive focuses and it should be better."
Heading into this game, Gragg said California's defense will need to contain Versailles quarterback Coby Williams, who has rushed for 465 yards and six touchdowns and has passed for 464 yards and five touchdowns.
"He is a really good athlete, he is one of the top two quarterbacks in the conference," Gragg said. "We are going to have to be able to stop him from being able to scramble around because he makes a lot of plays with his legs and we are going to have to shut down his receivers down field."
Williams was held to 17 yards on 16 carries and threw for 87 yards and two interceptions against Blair Oaks.
Running back Michael Trotter led the rushing attack against the Falcons with 16 carries for 50 yards. Dallas Waller led the Tigers' receivers with five catches for 70 yards.
Through four games, Trotter is second on the team with 162 yards rushing and one score. Wyatt Espinosa leads the receiving corps with 14 catches for 192 yards and three touchdowns.
Defensively, Trotter not only lead Versailles in tackles at the linebacker position, but he also leads the area with 54 tackles - 39 solo - in four games. He had 10 tackles in the loss to the Falcons.
Williams has had two interceptions at defensive back and Colbey Boicourt also has one pick.
Versailles' defense has allowed 37 points per game, inflated by a 68-30 season-opening loss to Knob Noster. However, the Tigers opened conference play two weeks ago with a 30-22 upset win against Class 3 state-ranked Southern Boone.
The Pintos enter tonight's game averaging 7.3 points per game, while the defense is allowing an average of 33.3 points.
Related Media: California Pintos Football Podcast [Versailles preview, Sept. 21, 2018]